This invention relates to medical syringes and particularly to a syringe containing a spring biased receding guard that surrounds the needle and its tip before and after use.
It is well known that used syringe needles are a source of harmful bacteria and that hospitals and medical offices destroy every needle after only a single use. Unfortunately, there are instances where a physician or technician, after administering an injection or withdrawing a blood specimen from a patient, has merely scratched himself or herself with the used needle and has thus contracted a disease that could result in a serious illness of even an untimely death. Paramedics forced to administer fast emergency first aid care under poor conditions are particularly susceptible to receiving a scratch from a contaminated needle dislodged by the thrashing of an accident victim.
The hypodermic syringe to be described employs a conventional needle but it is completely shielded by a plastic tube that recedes against the bias of a spring into cylindrical cavity in the syringe barrel while the needle is in use. The plastic tube or guard has a thin diaphragm seal at its end to assure the sterile integrity of the needle.